1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to pillows and more particularly a therapeutic pillow which has a soft and resilient central section and a peripheral firm neck support section.
2. The Prior Art
Heretofore various efforts have been made to provide a pillow which provides a firm neck support and at the same time a soft yielding head support. Illustrations of such prior art efforts are shown in one or more of the following U.S. Pat. Nos:
______________________________________ NUMBER NAME DATE ______________________________________ 35,947 C. W. Meinecke December 31, 1901 1,020,444 S. L. Platt March 19, 1912 3,400,413 E. La Grossa September 10, 1968 3,521,310 M. H. Greenawalt July 21, 1970 3,667,074 William M. Emery June 6, 1972 3,829,917 Earle W. De Laittre August 20, 1974 3,902,456 Mildred M. David September 2, 1975 D238,104 Samuel L. McNair December 16, 1975 4,320,543 Linda H. Dixon March 23, 1982 ______________________________________
The difficulties with prior art pillow constructions were that some neck supports were provided with a hardened latex material with the head support of a soft resilient latex material. A plurality of different types of firm materials were provided to define a neck support as well as a head support including unit molded pillows having a central section to receive the head and with peripheral portions for supporting the neck. The contoured pillows in the prior art essentially were difficult to assemble. Pillow assemblies had a central opening for the head and peripheral portions to supportably receive the neck.